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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Loving... "mnk" by eomac

I got a lovely surprise on Friday night... Invisible Agent sent through their latest release for a wee preview and I was mightily impressed with the quality of it. I still am after a number of relistens.

I'm a fan of upbeat enthusiastic techno-inspired breakbeats... but wasn't really listening at the moment with any intention. I love Orbital, for example, but need to search them out... they are not on my iPhone for immediate listen while commuting.

This has changed, however, with the inclusion of "mnk" by eomac. It is truly a wonderful EP that brings together a number of ideas to create a vivid and powerful artistic expression and subsequent impression on me as the listener.

The EP opens with the title track "mnk" which features a wonderfully dark off-tuned synth intro/backing, skittery beats that dance through the mind, a deep and dub-steppy bassline, disjointed vocal samples and an off-kilter synth melody. All these parts come together really nicely to form a lovely audio collage that is almost jaunty, dare I say it.

"bashy" is proudly dub-steppy in feel... with a skippy beat, a deep bassline, quirky sounds that remind me of Herbie Hancock's fusion explorations and repetitive vocal samples that bring a celebratory joyful feeling to this track.

Track three of four is "texx" is another upbeat and joyful number... beats are skippy and the bass is, once more, deep but more prominent. Disparate sounds come together to create the melody... especially one refrain that can only be described as "sci-fi" in nature.

The last track "medieval massive" starts with skittering beats and a disjointed synth refrain before it is complemented by further synths and beats to create a wonderfully immersive soundscape... a soundscape that slows to a halt as the track ends.

There is no way to avoid the infectious upbeatness of this EP. This is goodtime music... unashamedly jiggy and jaunty with a depth of sound and all the hallmarks of technical proficiency.

I would recommend this EP to folks wanting an injection of up and would suggest playing it over good headphones or on a big hifi... there is so much that could be missed if you listen to it on the "standard" headphones that you received with your player of choice.